I say this not because of the fanciness of my own Dolce & Gabbana's - I say this because it's a fact. We have BuddyHolly; Elvis and Elvis; John Lennon; and a bunch more. But there are too few of them! I think it's 'cause it takes a real man to wear them, and to wear them good.This is something Pastor McPurvis at the Vinyl Orphanage have been thinking about. He sais: "Once one of the only acceptable fashion accessories available to men, glasses are slowly disappearing from our cultural landscape. Affordable contact lenses and Lasik surgery are replacing the firm, sturdy, and, dare we say it, manly combination of frame and lenses. ..."But he also continues: "Fortunately we have found several individuals who will not let the unending march of progress hamper their chosen life statement to the world. Join us in celebrating the wonders of having four eyes." McPurvis points us to Jo Amarwho sings only for You! and Bro. Tommy Stone (a man with a title and a name like that would do good even if he was blind I'll tell you!). And here's the wholesome gallery of Men with Glasses. (And don't forget to sing on your way out of the orphanage!)http://www.vinylorphanage.com/theme.html/Z

American Art Archives has a mission devided into three parts:-Help preserve the memory of the great illustrators and their works. -Give visitors a chance to experience the kind of art that people of the last century experienced virtually every day.
-Provide an outlet for you fans of illustration art where you can contribute bio information, corrections (we do make mistakes), gallery ideas and artwork, articles on artists, trends, and techniques, upcoming events you want to promote, whatever else you can think of.
And boy! Do they succeed! Great artists and illustrators are being displayed. Here you can find illustrators like: Rolf Armstrong, Edwin Georgi (the artist behind the work above!), J C Leyendecker, Dr. Seuss and many more fine artists. And they'll even tell you what "illustration" is.(via Sugar 'N Spicy)http://www.americanartarchives.com/index.htm/Z

"I am a mind of a monster in the body of a boy. I, a heavy evil highway bandit prowl by car and prowl by midnight feet. I see it in your sisters' faces, whips so wicked, ropes so tight, my fingers rip through garden perfume, body paint the bedspread bright.

I crave warm fluffy things. Kittens, hamsters, feathered fish. Crouching in the country heat, eating legs of chicken hawks, the barnyard grease dribbles down my chin, as I make an important inner space discovery while feeding my human body. My human body holds me its lifetime prisoner. I escape through the tongue splashing into smiles, tears, yells and screams. It is hard for me to appear when the world wants me to, on the surface of my human body. Materialistically the world expects me to communicate on its own terms. I look back and see none. Reality brings about a change. STRAIGHT PEOPLE ARE CRAZY.

By being born wild into this universe you are hereby endowed by nature with all you need for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The world owes you a living - flaming creatures. Go wild until you get it."Kim Fowley – liner notes to Born to Be Wild(via Garage Hangover)/Z

Thursday, August 26, 2004

"The truth is, I flat-out stole the format for Ultrazine #1 (published in 1978) from The Comic Book Collector, a fanzine by John Harris. "Hey, this looks easy," I thought. (I was 15 years old). My partners in crime were neighborhood pals John Zupkow, Mike Cevarr, and John Steventon. Those first few issues sucked. Thankfully other people joined in, the quality shot up overnight, and Ultrazine developed its own identity. From 1978 to 1982, I published 62 fanzines, with help from more than 125 contributors from across the country. It was the sheer enthusiasm and obvious talents of many of these friends that kept me going so long. (The typical fanzine burnout rate was about 18 months, with eight or nine issues). I was by no means the smartest or most gifted of the contributors to my own books, but I was organized, ambitious, and very persistent -- plus, I had access to a copy machine."The words are Matt Bucher's.The editor for UltraZine and also the guy making this site possible.Graphic Visions, Lan's Lantern, UltraZine.Cool fanzines!
http://www.ultrazine2000.com/zines.html/Z

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

"As the body is considered to be our most reliable, continuous and comprehensive metaphor for life and its meaning, multiplied bodies in mass gymnastics display are in the same way metaphor for desired society and its leadership. The ritual of the display of strong, young, beautiful and disciplined bodies offer an attractive reading of a society as whole and consequently legitimized the leadership as a promoter or creator of such a society. Since its origins in the early 19th century, the symbolic potential of coordinated movements of thousands of trainees has been exploited by various movements and regimes, varying from the extreme right to the extreme left. The purpose of this exhibition is to explore how this symbolic potential was confronted with and transformed by the communist ideology in mass gymnastic rituals all over Eastern Europe. It will study how the key concepts that the mass gymnastic performances offered - strength, youth, beauty and discipline - were transformed into symbols of a strong, young, beautiful and disciplined socialist society, and how this was used to legitimize the leadership, which observed these rituals from the tribunes of stadiums."'Training for the1960 Czechoslovak Spartakiad'Bodies In Formation(via PLEP)http://www.osa.ceu.hu/galeria/spartakiad/online/index2.html/Z

"In October 1963, the Boo-Weevils gave themselves a new name. Until the middle or end of January 1964, the band was called "The Ravens," and under this name, the then-current members of the band, Dave Davies, Ray Davies, Pete Quaife, and Mickey Willett, recorded their first songs in the studio." (from Kinks.de)The fabulous Garage Hangover presents three of the Ravens recordings and tells us: "Calling themselves the Ravens and led by Dave Davies instead of his brother Ray, this early incarnation of the Kinks recorded several demos. Who exactly was in the band or writing songs at this point is still a mystery, but these have more than just historical value."http://users.rcn.com/cbishop/GarageHangover/index.html/Z

Elmer Bernstein passed a way 18 August. Here's the soundtrack to 'I Love You, Alice B. Toklas', the Peter Sellers comedy from 1968. It is Basic Hip making this quite rare item available for download and enjoyment. "This score was never officially released and came out on a small label in the mid 1970s. The reason for the missing track titles is that there are none - the LP contains no cues!"http://www.basichip.com/And now to something completely different! This is a group/artist named RIIA (Really Interesting Audio Adventures) ;-). It's loads of sound. It's mashup in a very free and fun way with lots of love for music. In this soup of sounds you'll be able to hear Beach Boys, Public Enemy, Cyndi Lauper, Astrud Gilberto, Giorgio Moroder and many more in crazy team ups. This is really something to get the party starting and then on through the night.Sounds For the Sunset! (via Comfort Stand Blog)
http://www.m-1.us/sounds_for_the_sun_set.html/Z

Jan Turkenburg's 52 weeks project ("every week in 2004 there will be a link to a page with recordings which are not available in the shop and preferably introduced by the artist him/her/themselve") is now on week 35."The following tracks are taken from "ABBA voor kinderen" (Abba for kids) from 1981, performed by a Children's choir in Leiden. The dutch lyrics are by Pieter Goemans, who has written a lot of commercial children lyrics, but these are not his best ones, just like the accompaniment and the singing isn't really outstanding, but at least they didn't let half naked little girls sing "gimme gimme gime a man after midnight", like the Mini pops. Goemans let them sing things like "Look, there's the little gnome" and "Won't you come to my birthday party?". From the liner notes we can only learn that the idea for this album came from Cees Kerkhof, the sleeve was designed by Jan van Uden and Frederico (F. Balke) made the illustrations." and further on: "This week's record was badly damaged and three of the songs I couldn't repair acceptably. So here are two consolation tracks in the same genre, taken from the very limited release CD "Mijn oom is een dinosaurus" (My uncle is a dinosaur), which I recorded especially for two small family members."ABBA Voor Kinderenhttp://www.meneerjan.schoolreference.com/35/52.35.html/Z

"She's performing at a rock festival in the former Roman settlement of Avenches in Switzerland, playing to a half-full, ancient amphitheatre as a warm-up act for Lou Reed and German punk diva Nina Hagen. She plays a set of Serge's songs, scored to Arab-influenced music. For all its eccentricity, it's a beautiful concert and one she has been touring with for a couple of years. Sometimes she sits on the edge of the stage like a little girl; then she's drifting about, kissing her band members and telling stories about Serge. By the end the audience joins in with 'Comment Te Dire Adieu'. I see people crying."Jane Birkinarticle in Guardian Unlimited.http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1283226,00.html/Z

When a woman faints - what to do? It's the good samaritan way!But it's not about humanism - it's more of an universal thing!Sexism? Nope. Just fun and adventure.And, our hero - Conan - of course he's there.Check out all the girls in MY arms!(Via grow-a-brain)/Z

Dear Conan: "Write in and Conan will answer all your questions. Be careful though.. Conan's been known to get angry pretty easily and you wouldn't want that. The last person to piss Conan off ended up with one less arm. But despite all that, Conan is by far the best source of information and advice on the internet, so send in your questions today!""I am a Viking who was forced to cut off his Viking locks in order to join the Marine Corps. I no longer feel as Viking-like without my very long hair. What can a present day killer such as myself do to maintain my Viking Feel?"Mail Conan Now!Valeria is always around.http://home.thezone.net/~jgillard/DearConan.htm/Z

Yesterday I changed the template once more. I am unsure of this 'cause I'm quite fresh at this. Therefore I'd like You (anyone!) to tell me what you think! Does the Blog look Good or Bad? Do you have advice for me to improve it? Any response would be nice (LOL)....

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Oddio Overplaywas a great site.Now it's time for the new and improved!But thats not all! Katya (the site manager) speaks up: "In celebration of sharing music and the relaunch of the site, it seemed like a fun idea to give the site a theme song. There are so many remarkable artists traveling in the same online music circles that it was impossible to choose one artist.So the invitation was sent out asking for themes to compile an entire CD. Friends from right next door and from all over the world came to the call. These marvelous people have created a fantastic CD full of fun songs and Oddio Overplay themes! What a cool dream come true! It is a dream for you, too, because you get to enjoy the entire release!"Wow! Let's Oddio!http://www.oddiooverplay.com/Z